When checking out a variety of assets worldwide there are a number of investments that you can consider in terms of hot commodities. While most people immediately think of investments like silver and gold, you might rather turn to the idea of spices. Saffron is actively considered one of the most expensive products in the world. Rather than a precious metal, saffron can have a steady and consistent price.
Just 1 pound of saffron can cost upwards of $5000 and it’s easily one of the world’s most expensive commodities. To put prices in perspective, pure vanilla is valued at about $600 per pound, saffron of the other hand requires far more labor and a specialty harvesting process.
Saffron is derived from the crocus flower and each flower has three red stigmas which are the saffron that needs to be harvested. In extremely large field of these flowers the yield of the spices extremely low. For every acre of flowers that are planted only 4 pounds of saffron are produced.
It takes over 170 flowers to produce just 1 pound of saffron and to make the price go up even more the flowers are extremely delicate to grow. Although saffron is a fairly renewable resource the flowers bloom at their maximum yield over six weeks of the year only. Prime saffron season begins in late September and runs to early December. They need to be harvested at a specific time during the day and this involves a very large number of laborers to actually perform the harvest.
Almost 90% of saffron is grown in Iran and this is because the labor and climate here is considered to be as inexpensive as possible. Harvesting all of the saffron under such a short growth period can often be quite expensive for laborers and this is why the region is so popular for producers. The price would be driven up even further if there was a need for more costly labor.
